1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to monitoring surface roadway vehicular traffic flow and traffic conditions.
2. Prior Art
In general, the concept of monitoring surface roadways to compute the traffic flow and traffic conditions has been utilized in the prior art but in a different way from the unique features that will be discussed in the present invention.
The closest prior art that is related to the general field of the invention in which the present invention is to be categorized is as follows.
United States Patent 20110156924 for “ESTIMATION OF TRAVEL TIMES USING BLUETOOTH” issued on Jun. 30, 2011 to Nadeem, Tamer M. et al. The patent discloses methods for estimating travel time using at least two remote systems to record the timestamps associated with obtaining identifying information of a wireless Bluetooth enabled, or other WPAN technology, electronic device in a vehicle. A remote system in one embodiment is a Bluetooth enhanced traffic controller. Characteristics of Bluetooth technology, such as a unique address for each Bluetooth capable device are used to detect a vehicle with a Bluetooth device by at least a first and a second remote system. Vehicle identifying data including at least a time stamp is transmitted by the remote systems to a central system. The central system determines a travel time, or an estimated travel delay. Travel time related data is provided by the central system to a display, such as a variable or dynamic message sign. This method relies on the use Bluetooth technology by tracking Bluetooth enabled devices. Our system does not utilize Bluetooth technology. Our system works with the existing broadcasts of vehicular TPMS sensors which operate on a different radio frequency from Bluetooth technology. Our system, unlike the patent, receives all of its information from TPMS sensors located in the wheels of vehicles and does not have crowdsourcing inaccuracies. These inaccuracies include but are not limited to being unable to distinguish between Bluetooth-enabled devices located in a vehicle from devices located outside of the vehicle (i.e. Bluetooth-enabled devices being used by pedestrians near the roadway).
U.S. Pat. No. 7,912,627 for “Obtaining road traffic condition data from mobile data sources” issued on Mar. 22, 2011 to Downs et al. The patent discloses techniques for assessing road traffic conditions in various ways based on obtained traffic-related data, such as data samples from vehicles and other mobile data sources traveling on the roads, as well as in some situations data from one or more other sources (such as physical sensors near to or embedded in the roads). The assessment of road traffic conditions based on obtained data samples may include various filtering and/or conditioning of the data samples, and various inferences and probabilistic determinations of traffic-related characteristics of interest from the data samples. In some situations, at least some of the mobile data sources are configured to frequently acquire and store data samples, and to occasionally make multiple such data samples available together for use in the road traffic condition assessment (e.g., by acquiring a data sample every minute and by transmitting a group of stored data samples every 15 minutes). This technique utilizes the global positioning system as well as cell phones to monitor and track moving vehicles. Our system uses neither, nor tracks specific cars. Our system does not utilize mobile data sources, which is unable to distinguish between mobile devices located in a vehicle from devices located outside of the vehicle (i.e. mobile devices being used by pedestrians near the roadway). All data gathered is anonymous and received based on the vehicle entering our transceiver's detection area.
There is a significant need for an improvement in the above-described prior art because the above-described prior art does not provide 100% vehicular source of traffic data flow and conditions and there is a significant need for an innovation which does provide 100% vehicular source of traffic data flow and conditions.